In the race to succeed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak once again won the majority of the votes. He received 115 out of 357 votes in the third round of voting in the Tory Group on Monday. Behind them were Secretary of State for Commerce Penny Mordaunt (82) and Secretary of State Liz Truss (71). MP Kemi Badenoch (58) secured fourth place.
The last-placed Tom Tugendhat, on the other hand, did not make it into the next round. In each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Even before the vote, it had been expected that this would be the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Voting among MPs continues until only two candidates remain. Then the 200,000 party members should decide by postal vote. It should be clear on September 5 who will succeed Johnson as party leader and thus as head of government.
In addition to Sunak, Foreign Minister Truss is also given a good chance of taking on the top post. Both favorites canceled their participation in a planned third TV debate on Monday. The dispute between the three remaining candidates was then canceled by the broadcaster Sky News. Sunak and Truss had heavily criticized each other during a TV debate on Sunday evening. The acrimony of the altercation reportedly sparked concern within the party. The two clashed, among other things, because of different plans for tax cuts. But there were also personal attacks.
Johnson asks a vote of confidence
Regardless of the procedure, the government has scheduled a confidence vote for Monday evening. She was responding to criticism that she had blocked a Labor Party motion of no confidence in Johnson last week, with which the opposition wanted to force the prime minister to resign immediately. As expected, the government survived the vote. In the event of a defeat, an early new election would have been inevitable – but even Johnson’s opponents in the Tory party want to avoid that at all costs at the moment due to poor poll numbers.
Johnson opened the debate himself in the afternoon, defending his political legacy. Johnson said in the London House of Commons that he had completed Brexit and made the right decisions on the big issues. Before the vote, opposition leader and Labor leader Keir Starmer described it as “absurd” that Johnson was likely to win the vote of confidence even though he had lost the support of his group.